Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

Tapestries to take your breath away

Posted by Cindy on December 1, 2013

Dec 012013

San Francisco International Airport Terminal 2 Waiting Area This is a series by Mark Adams. They include Garden Outside Gate, Garden in Golden Gate Park, and Garden in San Andreas Valley. They have been in storage for over 20 years at the SFAC. They were brought out and installed as part of the complete remodel of Terminal 2 at SFO. They are absolutely stunning, and thank goodness they have been brought out for all to enjoy. Woven in the traditional Aubusson style, these flax woven wool tapestries represent various gardens that the artist remembers from his years living in San Continue Reading

Topo in Cloth and aluminum

Posted by Cindy on November 27, 2013

Nov 272013

San Francisco International Airport Departure Lobby Terminal 2 Kendall Buster -Powder coated steel tubing; greenhouse shade cloth- 288 in. x 288 in. x 192 in Topograph I & II Kendall Buster earned a BFA degree from the Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington DC and an MFA in Sculpture from Yale University as well as participating in the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Studio Program in New York City. His website explains the piece: Topograph was designed and constructed for the San Francisco International Airport Terminal 2 departures area. A raised entryway forms a kind of narrow bridge above a massive Continue Reading

Welcome

Posted by Cindy on November 26, 2013

Nov 262013

San Francisco International Airport Terminal 2 Baggage Claim Level 1 Dan Snyder – Polyurethane Paint on Aluminum -1983 Titled Welcome North, Welcome South, Welcome East, Welcome West, is designed to greet visitors from around the world. According to Mr Snyder’s website: Dan was born in St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands in 1941. His father was a naval officer stationed there at the time. Growing up he lived largely in seaport towns in the United States. After graduating from Wesleyan University in Connecticut with a major in theater, he attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston Continue Reading

Caduceus

Posted by Cindy on November 25, 2013

Nov 252013

110 Sutter Street Financial District This was originally designed in a skeletal Chicago School manner by the important but little-known firm of Hemenway and Miller and remodeled with an overlay of Beaux-Arts details by architect E. A. Bozio. **** This slightly stuffy, but excellent article, written in 1979, explains the building and its environs perfectly. In 1902, the architectural supplement to the San Francisco periodical Town Talk called the original design “A modern, superbly appointed, fire-proof building, now in the course of construction.” It was designed for the Bullock and Jones Co., who occupied the lower two floors, with offices above. At Continue Reading

One of only Two Octagonal Houses in San Francisco

Posted by Cindy on November 22, 2013

Nov 222013

One of only Two Octagonal Houses in San Francisco

1067 Green Street Russian Hill The Feusier Octagon House, built between 1857 and 1858, is one of only two surviving octagon plan houses in San Francisco. The other is the Colonial Dames Octagon on Gough Street. Both Houses retain their original exterior construction and reflect their eight-sided shape in the interior. This house was originally two stories and copied from a plan in a book on octagon houses by Orson Squire Fowler. Phrenologist, Orson Squire Fowler published The Octagon House: A Home For All, or A New, Cheap, Convenient, and Superior Mode of Building in 1848. He started a 19th century fad in Continue Reading

Bernstein’s Fish Grotto

Posted by Cindy on November 21, 2013

Nov 212013

123 Powell Street San Francisco * Bernstein’s Fish Grotto was opened by Maurice Bernstein (1886-1932) in 1907. It was known for its unique entrance, a ship’s bow jutting into the sidewalk. The ship was a faithful reproduction of Christopher Columbus’s Nina. Inside the restaurant, the marine theme continued. Bernstein’s had seven colorful dining rooms: the Fisherman’s Cave, the Pilot Room, the Sun Deck, the Main Salon, the Cabin Nooks, the Upper Deck, and the Porthole Counter. Located near the end of the Powell cable car line, the Grotto was a popular tourist attraction for many years. Advertising called it “The Ship Continue Reading

Cilindro Construito

Posted by Cindy on November 21, 2013

Nov 212013

San Francisco International Airport Terminal 2 Baggage Claim Level 1 Cilindro Construito by Arnaldo Pomodoro 1983. Cast bronze, 192 in. x 18 in Aside from the great exhibits put on by the SFO Museum, there is a considerable collection of art that is owned by the San Francisco Arts Commission at the airport. I have often had a problem with this, as by definition of public art, this is not. Most pieces are behind the walls of TSA, which by itself is the antitheses of Public. However, I am aware that much of the art was placed there before we Continue Reading

Tudor Revival and Craftsman Style Firehouse

Posted by Cindy on November 20, 2013

Nov 202013

Tudor Revival and Craftsman Style Firehouse

1088 Green Street Russian Hill The SFFD History site says: After the 1906 Earthquake and Fire, Newton J. Tharp was named city architect and was charged with rebuilding city government buildings. He designed this firehouse along with a number of Beaux Arts-style firehouses. Located on top of Russian Hill, this firehouse was designed to conform to the neighboring architecture and is the only firehouse of the Tudor Revival and Craftsman styles. 1915 During the horse-drawn era, the Department chose to build their firehouses at the top of the City’s many hills as it was quicker to respond to fires that Continue Reading

Takaroa

Posted by Cindy on November 19, 2013

Nov 192013

1086 Green Street Russian Hill Takaroa Fountain by David Ruth 2004 Pyrex Glass This fountain sits outside a condominium complex on Green Street, and was a private commission. According to David Ruth’s website: The Look of ice comes from the fusing of borosilicate glasses like Pyrex. After I was introduced to the material I tried to erase the white veils but ultimately saw that they offered a new style of fused glass that resembles ice. Rather than the liquid flow I had been used to, the ice gave me a different way of conceptualizing my sculpture and fired my interest Continue Reading

Underwriters Fire Patrol

Posted by Cindy on November 18, 2013

Nov 182013

147 Natoma SOMA/Financial District According to the History Department of the SFFD: On May 24, 1875, the City’s insurance companies joined together to organize and fund the Underwriters Fire Patrol. The UFP was like a fire department; it had its own firehouses, alarm system and firemen whose only task was salvage practices. The patrol worked at fires in conjunction with the SFFD. These firemen often worked below the fire floor and spread waterproof covers over merchandise threatened with water damage. They also saved and removed business records from the fire building. The insurance companies realized that if valuable items could be Continue Reading

Stefan Novak and Redwood

Posted by Cindy on November 15, 2013

Nov 152013

Clipper and Diamond Heights Blvd Noe Valley/Twin Peaks This piece titled Redwood Sculpture, was done in 1968 by Stefan Novak. Mr. Novak and his family are very private people, so there is little information regarding the artist. He was an instructor in the architecture department at UC Berkeley. He was born on August 22, 1918 and died on April 29, 2006 at 87 years old. * * The piece is owned by the SFAC.

Engine Company #13

Posted by Cindy on November 14, 2013

Nov 142013

1458 Valencia Street Mission Built in 1883, this is the City’s oldest standing firehouse. In the heart of the Mission District, this rare brick firehouse in the Victorian Italianate style has a front surface made entirely of cast iron detail. Such buildings are very rare in San Francisco with most clustered in the Jackson Square area. On the conversion from horse drawn to motorized apparatus, the company was assigned a 1916 American LaFrance Type 12 Chemical and Hose Car with a 35 gallon chemical tank with a 6 cylinder 100 HP engine. Engine Co. No. 13 remained assigned here until Continue Reading

Kokeshi to Kaiju

Posted by Cindy on November 13, 2013

Nov 132013

San Francisco International Airport Astro Boy (Tesuwan Atomu) When the SFO Museum began Twittering about their upcoming Japanese Toy exhibit, I knew I needed to see it. Sadly, it is behind TSA. It is in Terminal Three for all you lucky people flying in and/or out of SFO in the next 6 months. I contacted the museum, and Exhibits Curator, Nicole Mullen, was kind enough to get me past TSA to view the exhibit. I was a kid in a candy shop. I have been a fan of Astro Boy and Ultraman since I was a child. I have a Continue Reading

A Museum for the Cost of a BART Ticket

Posted by Cindy on November 12, 2013

Nov 122013

San Francisco International Airport Addison Model 2A Radio c. 1940 Many people know that there is art at SFO, but did you know there is an actual museum? Much of the art you see scattered around the airport as single pieces belong to the SFAC, however, the exhibits you see, carefully crafted for your enjoyment, are by an entirely different organization. The SFO Museum was established by the Airport Commission in 1980 for the purpose of humanizing the airport environment. In 1999, SFO Museum became the first exhibitions program in an airport to receive accreditation from the American Alliance of Continue Reading

Wally Heider Recording Studio

Posted by Cindy on November 8, 2013

Nov 082013

245 Hyde Street The Tenderloin The blue building hidden behind this tree (the fourth film vault) has a prominent place in San Francisco Music history as well. In early 1969, Wally Heider opened the San Francisco Wally Heider’s Studio at 245 Hyde Street. Heider had reportedly apprenticed as an assistant and mixer at United Western Recorders in Hollywood, CA, with Bill Putnam, “The Father of Modern Recording”, and he already owned and ran an independent recording studio and remote recording setup called Studio 3, in Hollywood, California. In 1967, Heider had been involved in live recording at the Monterey Pop Festival. Artists like Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service and The Grateful Dead had been recording Continue Reading

Film Vaults of the Tenderloin

Posted by Cindy on November 7, 2013

Nov 072013

245-259 Hyde Street The Tenderloin I have driven by this area with these stunning Art Deco/Art Moderne buildings all in a row, and never pursued the history. An evening of beers at the Brown Jug with Mark Ellinger and my eyes were opened. Originally theaters purchased the films they showed their patrons. Then Harry, Herbert and Earle C. Miles, San Francisco brothers, realized there was a business in buying films in bulk and renting them to movie houses. Their original distribution centers were on Market Street/Golden Gate Avenue. Inside these four buildings were film vaults with thick concrete walls Continue Reading

Grain Silos in San Francisco?

Posted by Cindy on November 6, 2013

Nov 062013

696 Amador Street off 3rd Street / Pier 90/92 Bayview/Hunters Point These abandoned silos on Pier 90/92 formerly stored grain that was brought in by rail and then loaded from the silos onto ships for export. These operations were discontinued following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Pier 90/92 was created in 1918 by the State Harbor Commission. In the 1920’s the grain terminal also had a mill to serve local needs. The terminal could hold 500,000 bushels, the principal grain that flowed through them was barley. In the 1970’s the terminal was used to export grains to Russia during their severe drought. Continue Reading

The Royal Theater – Another Lost Gem

Posted by Cindy on November 5, 2013

Nov 052013

1529 Polk Street Nob Hill The Royal Theatre was built in 1916 and began its life as a Nickelodeon. Originally designed by the Reid Brothers for the same family that owned two other theaters in San Francisco, the Castro and the Alhambra. It was completely remodeled by Timothy Pflueger during the mid-1930’s for the Nasser Brothers chain which operated it at the time. The theater contained 1515 seats when it opened. As time passed Polk Street became run-down, but still the theater’s vertical sign was a local landmark. The same decorative motif found on the front also gracefully decorated the Continue Reading

Goldsworthy III

Posted by Cindy on November 1, 2013

Nov 012013

San Francisco Presidio Main Parade Ground Anza and Sheridan This is the third installation of Andy Goldsworthy’s at the Presidio in San Francisco. It is titled Tree Fall. There are two other Goldsworthy’s on the Presidio Grounds that have appeared in this site before and can be seen here. The exhibit is in the Old Stone Powder Magazine on the Main Parade Ground. The room is 20 X 17 feet with walls two feet thick. The building dates to 1863, is one of the oldest structures at the fort and has never been opened to the public. Originally a domed Continue Reading

Guglielmo Marconi Memorial

Posted by Cindy on October 31, 2013

Oct 312013

Lombard Avenue On the drive up to Coit Tower North Beach This memorial to Guglielmo Marconi was placed sometime in 1938-1939. A group called the Marconi Memorial Foundation incorporated in the 1930s for the purpose of enshrining Marconi as the inventor of the wireless (a fact contested by the Russians). They placed two memorials one on the slopes of San Francisco’s Telegraph Hill and one at 16th and Lamont Streets in Washington D.C.. The Foundation collected public subscriptions from the supportive Italian-American community in North Beach, and on April 13, 1938, received permission from the U.S. Congress and President Continue Reading

The Gates of Cayuga Playground

Posted by Cindy on October 30, 2013

Oct 302013

End of Cayuga Avenue at Naglee Avenue Under the Bart Train and The 280 Freeway Outer Mission Cayuga Playground is once again open. Your first greeting is the painted still fence, titled Cayuga Portal. Through the City’s two-percent-for-art program, the SFAC commissioned artist Eric Powell to create two new decorative gates for the park. The design for the main entry gateway features vignettes drawn from Braceros’s sculptures linked together by images of plants and leaves that echo the park’s lush plant life. The gates were commissioned for $78,000 in the 2009 City Budget, Cultural Affairs Department. Berkeley artist Eric Powell Continue Reading

The Artist of Cayuga Playground

Posted by Cindy on October 29, 2013

Oct 292013

Cayuga and Naglee Avenue Outer Mission In 2011 I read this wonderful article in Conversations.org and was intrigued to visit Cayuga Park and Demetrio Braceros’ work. I drove to Cayuga Playground to discover that it was closed. The sign said it would reopen in a few months. Alas, the work took until August of 2013 to actually finish the work. Here is an excerpt from the interview: …Demetrio was born in the Philippines. He had taught industrial arts there. He’d come to the Bay Area in 1977, I think He’d worked at the Arboretum in Golden Gate Park for three years. I didn’t Continue Reading

The Rebirth of Cayuga Playground

Posted by Cindy on October 28, 2013

Oct 282013

Cayuga and Naglee Avenues Outer Mission The 3.89 acre, 63 year old, Cayuga Playground closed December 2011 for a badly needed $8.4 million renovation. About $7.3 million of the renovation was paid for by the 2008 voter-approved parks bond, $711,000 from a state urban greening grant and $1.36 million from BART’s Earthquake Safety Program Impact Compensation. The playground’s old clubhouse had fallen into disrepair before the renovation, vandalism had increased and the baseball field was usable for only about three months of the year because of irrigation problems from the creek that runs beneath the park. On one occasion, a lawnmower Continue Reading

Alemany Emergency Hospital

Posted by Cindy on October 25, 2013

Oct 252013

35 Onandaga Avenue at Alemany Mission Terrace / Outer Mission This beautiful building was once the Alemany Emergency Hospital. There were no other emergency rooms other than San Francisco General Hospital before 1966, therefore the County was responsible for all emergency care and all emergency ambulance transport. Emergency care was provided throughout San Francisco free of charge by the citywide system, which consisted of the primary emergency room—Mission Emergency—and four other “Emergency Hospitals” scattered throughout the City. These hospitals were Central, located adjacent to City Hall; Harbor, located on the downtown waterfront; Park, located on the eastern edge of Continue Reading

The Young Dead Soldiers

Posted by Cindy on October 24, 2013

Oct 242013

Presidio Bay Ridge Trail Presidio Cemetery Overlook Dedicated on Veterans Day 2009, the Presidio cemetery overlook honors the service and sacrifices of America’s soldiers. A wooded section of the Bay Area Ridge Trail leads to the overlook, which is a perfect place for quiet contemplation. The cemetery overlook offers one of San Francisco’s most stunning views of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay and the Marin Headlands. The carvings are part of “The Young Dead Soldiers,” a poem by Archibald MacLeish, who served as an artillery officer in World War I. The young dead soldiers do not speak. Nevertheless, they are heard Continue Reading

Old Chamber of Commerce Building

Posted by Cindy on October 23, 2013

Oct 232013

333 Pine Street Financial District / Downtown ** From Men Who Made San Francisco 1912 There is not much left to say about McDougall other than he was educated at the California School of Design. As stated, his work covered a wide range of building types, including churches, schools, apartment houses, commercial buildings, hotels, and private residences. Among his better known commissions were the Sheldon Building (1907) in San Francisco, the Standard Oil Building (1910) in San Francisco, an office building at 353 Sacramento Street (1922) in San Francisco, and the Federal Realty Building (1913-14) in Oakland, the West Coast’s first Gothic Continue Reading

Hotaling Place

Posted by Cindy on October 22, 2013

Oct 222013

27 Hotaling Financial District Jackson Square The center building is the Villa Taverna, it sits on Hotaling Place in the Financial District of San Francisco. This is one of many charming San Francisco alleyways. Hotaling Place is named for businessman Anson Parson Hotaling, best known for his 19th century whiskey trade. Hotaling Place leads from Washington Street to Jackson, the hub of the Jackson Square Historic District. Hotaling Place originally housed stables, (at 32-34) which accounts for the horse-head hitching posts you’ll see in the area. Hotaling Stables are registered as San Francisco Landmark #11. Hotaling Place in 1964 – Continue Reading

Fire Station #8 a WPA gem on Bluxome Street

Posted by Cindy on October 21, 2013

Oct 212013

Fire Station #8 a WPA gem on Bluxome Street

36 Bluxome Street SOMA South of the Slot Fire Station Number 8 was built in 1939 as a result of the WPA The San Francisco Fire Department was a big beneficiary of W.P.A. The Department’s 1974 Historical Review noted, “One of the few advances made by the Department in these lean years resulted from the formation of the Works Project Administration. As a result of this program several of the Department buildings were remodeled, new heating and plumbing facilities installed, and much necessary maintenance accomplished.” Assistant City Engineer Clyde E. Healy’s December, 1939, report notes repairs to no less than Continue Reading

Fire Pits on Ocean Beach

Posted by Cindy on October 14, 2013

Oct 142013

Ocean Beach There is only one beach in San Francisco where bonfires are allowed. In response to beachgoers’ concerns that beach fires were leaving unsafe debris on the beach, as well as concerns about smoke blowing into neighborhood homes, Golden Gate National Parks initiated a public process to consider the future of fires on Ocean Beach. Instead of banning fires, Golden Gate National Park joined several organizations in a creative partnership to install artistic fire rings on portions of the beach away from neighborhood homes. Those organizations, Surfrider Foundation, Burners Without Borders, Ocean Beach Foundation, and Golden Gate National Continue Reading

5th Street Plaza

Posted by Cindy on October 7, 2013

Oct 072013

400 Block of 5th Street South of Market From 2003 to 2009, the sound of work crews was a constant in the South of Market area due to a $471 million undertaking to retrofit the western approach to the Bay Bridge. (This construction should not be confused with the replacement of the Eastern Span of the Bay Bridge.) One result of the undertaking is called 5th Street Plaza. Photo Courtesy of Bay Bridge Info Seismic safety retrofit work on the West Approach — bordered by 5th Street and the Anchorage at Beale Street — involved completely removing and replacing this one-mile stretch Continue Reading

Older Entries Newer Entries